REVIEW: The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser

The Bookshop of Second Chances by Jackie Fraser: Broken yet crazily serene, Thea returns to her home to pack up her stuff and put to bed her marriage of 20 years after she discovers her husband has been cheating on her with one of her friends. Somehow, she is the one who is leaving the house, and yet, as lotto-like karma would have it, as she collects the last of her mail, she discovers she is the sole heir of her late Great Uncle Andrew’s estate.

Uncertain about her next steps in life, she takes the opportunity to travel to Scotland to take stock of her new asset and with very little reason to return to her home in Sussex, Thea figures she will stay for the summer and apply for a job in the local bookstore until she can figure out her next bold move.

Despite not wanting to employ women like some outdated 1900s archaic law, Edward, the bookshop owner and renowned town grump relents, and takes Thea on for minimum wage as a trial of sorts. Little by little she seems to bring him out of his own misery pit and on one random summers day, he takes her to his beach shack and whilst nothing explicitly romantic occurs, it is clear this is the beginning of something for the both of them.

With some gorgeous description of the Scottish scenery and some interesting commentary about tradition and historical family connections, this was a very earthy book that was umbrella’d with some proper well-to-do poshness of Ye’ Old.

Thea, despite the devastation of her broken marriage was painfully practical and certainly a little hung up on the fact that she was in her 40s and not part of the ‘Lord & Lady’ club or comparatively a whole lot less posh then Edward who had given up his title. Whilst Edward was by no means a saint, and behaved like a total nightmare some of the time, he was very likeable and his complex family backstory gave him plausible motivation to behave in some of the appalling ways he had, particularly towards his brother Charles.

Throughout, there were some great one-liners and given Thea really wasn’t one to fuss in any way shape or form, it was an interesting way to unpack the concept of cheating and indeed the outcomes of separation.

The overarching connection to literature and book collections grounded both of the characters and the whole journey was made all the more enjoyable due to their shared passions. Overall, this was a lovely read and certainly one that inspired sitting by a wood fire, a nip of brandy and the deep hope that good things always come to those who wait.

Book Info:

Publication: 4th May 2021 | Ballantine Books |

Thea Mottram is having a bad month. Her husband of nearly twenty years has just left her for one of her friends, and she is let go from her office job–on Valentine’s Day, of all days. Bewildered and completely lost, Thea doesn’t know what to do. But when she learns that a distant great uncle in Scotland has passed away, leaving her his home and a hefty antique book collection, she decides to leave Sussex for a few weeks. Escaping to a small coastal town where no one knows her seems to be exactly what she needs.

Almost instantly, Thea becomes enamored with the quaint cottage, comforted by its cozy rooms and shaggy, tulip-covered lawn. The locals in nearby Baldochrie are just as warm, quirky, and inviting. The only person she can’t seem to win over is bookshop owner Edward Maltravers, to whom she hopes to sell her uncle’s antique novel collection. His gruff attitude–fueled by an infamous, long-standing feud with his brother, a local lord–tests Thea’s patience. But bickering with Edward proves oddly refreshing and exciting, leading Thea to develop feelings she hasn’t felt in a long time. As she follows a thrilling yet terrifying impulse to stay in Scotland indefinitely, Thea realizes that her new life may quickly become just as complicated as the one she was running from.